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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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From operator to entrepreneur: David Garcia applies outage management lessons
David Garcia
If ComEd’s Zion plant in northern Illinois hadn’t closed in 1998, David Garcia might still be there, where he got his start in nuclear power as an operator at age 24.
But in his ninth year working there, Zion closed, and Garcia moved on to a series of new roles—including at Wisconsin’s Point Beach plant, the corporate offices of Minnesota’s Xcel Energy, and on the supplier side at PaR Nuclear—into an on-the-job education that he augmented with degrees in business and divinity that he sought later in life.
Garcia started his own company—Waymaker Resource Group—in 2014. Recently, Waymaker has been supporting Holtec’s restart project at the Palisades plant with staffing and analysis. Palisades sits almost exactly due east of the fully decommissioned Zion site on the other side of Lake Michigan and is poised to operate again after what amounts to an extended outage of more than three years. Holtec also plans to build more reactors at the same site.
For Garcia, the takeaway is clear: “This industry is not going away. Nuclear power and the adjacent industries that support nuclear power—and clean energy, period—are going to be needed for decades upon decades.”
In July, Garcia talked with Nuclear News staff writer Susan Gallier about his career and what he has learned about running successful outages and other projects.
F.-X. Ouf, M. De Mendonca Andrade, H. Feuchter, S. Duval, C. Volkringer, T. Loiseau, F. Salm, P. Ainé, L. Cantrel, A. Gil-Martin, F. Hurel, C. Lavalette, P. March, P. Nerisson, J. Nos, L. Bouilloux
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 2 | February 2023 | Pages 169-192
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2129274
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experimental results are reported on the airborne release, under fire conditions, of hazardous materials dissolved in a mixture of organic solvents [tributylphosphate (TBP) and hydrogenated tetrapropylene (HTP)] representative of the nuclear fuel recycling process. Cerium and ruthenium have been considered, respectively, as stable and volatile fission products that eventually could be released as airborne particles during thermal degradation of contaminated and inflammable liquids. Airborne release fractions (ARFs) and their experimental uncertainties have been determined. Considering fire involving contaminated organic solvents, higher ARFs are reported for ruthenium Ru(+III) (0.99 ± 1.20%) in comparison with cerium [0.22 ± 0.31% and 0.20 ± 0.28% for Ce(+III) and Ce(+IV), respectively]. This discrepancy is partially due to the volatility of ruthenium formed under these conditions. Considering configurations involving an aqueous nitric acid phase placed below contaminated solvents, boiling of this phase enhances the release of contaminant materials: 1.78 ± 1.06% and 1.01 ± 1.31% for Ce(+III) and Ce(+IV), respectively, and 12.41 ± 29.45% for Ru(+III). Analysis of the size distribution, morphology, and chemical composition of the released particles and droplets emitted during HTP/TBP bubble collapse are reported, highlighting the contribution of bubble bursting at the solvent surface to airborne release.
